If you’re ever looking for an exemplary model of a proper stand-up career path, consider Mike Birbiglia’s. At age 29, he’s been on sprawling college tours, cut a couple of rave-garnering CDs, did some televised stand-up specials and he just released a DVD called What I Should Have Said Was Nothing, an uncut version of his latest Comedy Central special of the same name. In April, Mike was in Los Angeles to shoot a pilot for CBS based on his blog, My Secret Public Journal. Recently, the comic has struggled publicly with body issues ever since receiving a Google Alert telling him people think he’s paunchy and awkward. During the pilot process, Birbiglia wrote to his Internet friends, “This month, I’m trying to lose weight because television makes normal people look fat, and makes fat people look like airplanes.” In between his fatty deposit removal efforts and his crazy sleepwalking habits, Mike took some time to talk to me about his mini comedy empire.
You started out at Georgetown, right? There seems to be a lot of whimsical people from there like John Mulaney, Nick Kroll, Julia Allison, etc.
And others yeah—Jim Gaffigan, Jacqueline Novak, Brian Donovan and Ed Herro. A few of us started an improv troupe there called The Georgetown Players.
When did you come to NYC?
I moved here after graduating in 2000. I lived on my sister Gina’s couch in Brooklyn, an air mattress in Queens and then eventually a bed in Manhattan. Things are really looking up.
Despite going on a Comedy Central–sponsored college tour modestly titled the Medium Man on Campus Tour, I’d say you are a rather big man on campus. Do you feel like you have to work harder to get bigger each year? Or do you feel like stand-up is something that, the more you do,
the more you attract opportunities and success?
Do I work harder? I don’t think so. I’d like to think that over the years, I’ve really just become less awful at doing stand-up—thus, more people want me to be involved with their projects.
Do you like life on the road?
When I’m there, no. In retrospect, yes. What’s cool is when you play a town you’ve never been to and people show up “on purpose.” Like this month, I did a show in Arizona, and it was packed. I didn’t even know they had televisions!
I recently caught your showcase of new stand-up material at the UCBT and realized that most of the stories you told were nearly verbatim from your blog, My Secret Public Journal. Is MSPJ like a chick hatchery for new material? Or do you write things for the stage and then editorialize them for the site?
Both of those things are true. And other things, too! The funnier stuff tends to make it on stage.
What’s going on with the pilot? I didn’t see it on CBS’s fall lineup...
We shot this really funny pilot for CBS in April. Nick Kroll is in it. It didn’t get picked up for the fall but might end up being a mid-season replacement. It was a great experience overall. It taught me about life, love and the difficulty in training cats.
Finally, do you really encase yourself in a cocoon-like sleeping bag in order to prevent yourself from sleepwalking?
That’s a long story, but yes, I wear a sleeping bag to bed each night, not unlike a straight jacket. I talk about this at length in my upcoming show Sleepwalk With Me, which I’m touring this fall and shooting as a concert film.
Birbiglia performs May 23 at UCBT, 307 W. 26th St. (near 8th Ave.), 212-366-9176; 8, $8; and May 25 at Union Hall, 702 Union St. (at 5th Ave.), Park Slope, B’klyn, 718-638-4400; 8, $7.
You started out at Georgetown, right? There seems to be a lot of whimsical people from there like John Mulaney, Nick Kroll, Julia Allison, etc.
And others yeah—Jim Gaffigan, Jacqueline Novak, Brian Donovan and Ed Herro. A few of us started an improv troupe there called The Georgetown Players.
When did you come to NYC?
I moved here after graduating in 2000. I lived on my sister Gina’s couch in Brooklyn, an air mattress in Queens and then eventually a bed in Manhattan. Things are really looking up.
Despite going on a Comedy Central–sponsored college tour modestly titled the Medium Man on Campus Tour, I’d say you are a rather big man on campus. Do you feel like you have to work harder to get bigger each year? Or do you feel like stand-up is something that, the more you do,
the more you attract opportunities and success?
Do I work harder? I don’t think so. I’d like to think that over the years, I’ve really just become less awful at doing stand-up—thus, more people want me to be involved with their projects.
Do you like life on the road?
When I’m there, no. In retrospect, yes. What’s cool is when you play a town you’ve never been to and people show up “on purpose.” Like this month, I did a show in Arizona, and it was packed. I didn’t even know they had televisions!
I recently caught your showcase of new stand-up material at the UCBT and realized that most of the stories you told were nearly verbatim from your blog, My Secret Public Journal. Is MSPJ like a chick hatchery for new material? Or do you write things for the stage and then editorialize them for the site?
Both of those things are true. And other things, too! The funnier stuff tends to make it on stage.
What’s going on with the pilot? I didn’t see it on CBS’s fall lineup...
We shot this really funny pilot for CBS in April. Nick Kroll is in it. It didn’t get picked up for the fall but might end up being a mid-season replacement. It was a great experience overall. It taught me about life, love and the difficulty in training cats.
Finally, do you really encase yourself in a cocoon-like sleeping bag in order to prevent yourself from sleepwalking?
That’s a long story, but yes, I wear a sleeping bag to bed each night, not unlike a straight jacket. I talk about this at length in my upcoming show Sleepwalk With Me, which I’m touring this fall and shooting as a concert film.
Birbiglia performs May 23 at UCBT, 307 W. 26th St. (near 8th Ave.), 212-366-9176; 8, $8; and May 25 at Union Hall, 702 Union St. (at 5th Ave.), Park Slope, B’klyn, 718-638-4400; 8, $7.
